Please somebody help promote this idea to help Verizon keep from losing customers like me.
I've had a phone line for 35 years but am seriously thinking of dropping it or switching to letting Google do a better job of supporting the number. I've talked to many people unhappy with Verizon service with regard to spam calls. About half our calls is from criminal companies that ignore the do-not-call-list. When I asked tech support if they could just block them - the response was only to try to sell me a service where I would have to hand type all the phone numbers of companies that spam with auto-dialers. This is not too difficult. All I ask is that all phone lines have the ability if *83 (or some special code) is dialed after a spam call that your system would log it. Then if that number in the future attempts to call someone who contributes spam ratings or has selected to opt out of getting calls from lines voted as spammers, the phone call instead goes to a prerecorded number where the customer could record a message that would be played to the spammer (it could mimic picking up and sounding interested in the call). That ability would quickly go viral and take a huge bite out of a growing criminal enterprize and stop people like me from dropping you.
Welcome to the forums. You're talking to other customers here.
Junk calling is a problem that plagues all phone systems, not just Verizon. Traditional phone systems are limited in what they can do. Traditional phone systems won't be upgraded with new features; they are just too old.
Internet based phone systems such as FiOS digital voice, Google voice, cable company phone and any other VoIP system have much more features.
For example, FiOS Digital Voice has a 100 entry call block list that does pretty much what you've suggested. In addition, any phone service with simultaneous ring can take advantage of the free nomorobo.com service. This is a community block list that does a great job of killing junk calls after one ring. FiOS Digital Voice works great with nomorobo.com.
If you have traditional phone service and want advanced features, you should switch to a VoIP service. If FiOS is available where you live, FiOS Digital Voice should be at the top of your list. Otherwise, you'll need to swtich to a cable company with VoIP or one of the 3rd party VoIP companies. None will be as good voice quality as FiOS.
If you want to stay with a traditional phone line you can add your own equipment to block junk calls. A quick search on Amazon for "call screener" provided many results. Here's one that looks interesting:
www.amazon.com/SENTRY-Fully-automatic-blocking-repeated/dp/B00U1PPWDO/
There are also cordless phone systems with built in call screeners.
Good Luck.
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